Cade Cunningham isn’t pretending the LeBron James sweepstakes were ever really his to win.
With the Philadelphia 76ers landing James in free agency, the Detroit Pistons watched another contender make a major offseason leap while their own roster stayed relatively unchanged. Cunningham, fresh off an All-NBA First Team nod in 2026 and the kind of season that helped Detroit win 60 games and push the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the second round of the 2026 NBA playoffs, didn’t see much reason to pick up the phone.
“I didn't give LeBron a call. I don't think he would have cared to hear what I had to say about it.
He's doing what he wants to do at this point. I'm not mad at that.
It is what it is, so good for him,” Cunningham said in an appearance on the “Sports Seriously” podcast.
That answer says plenty about where Cunningham sees himself right now: as the face of a Pistons team that is still building, still trying to climb, and still figuring out how to close the gap on the league’s top talent. Recruiting is part of the job in today’s NBA, and stars do it all the time. Cunningham knows that, and he also knows that someday he may have to play that role more aggressively if Detroit is going to land the kind of co-star that can help it break through.
For now, though, he wasn’t going to chase a call that he didn’t think had much chance of changing anything.
Maybe James wouldn’t have “cared to hear” what Cunningham had to say. But Cunningham wanted to know that for certain.
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Pistons May Finally Have A Better Answer When Cade Sits
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